Last year Coach Radtke and Coach Davison trained state champion James Chambers on their own time in discus and shot-put, helping him achieve two gold medals at state.
“I currently coach soccer in the spring, so when we started this it was after soccer practice one day and he was getting ready for a meet. I just walked over to the throwing ring to see how he was doing ,” Radtke said. “I watched him throw to see how he was doing and gave him a few pointers; his junior and senior year we waited until soccer practice was over and I could watch him throw once a week or so and then would go out there daily after soccer season to work with him to get ready for regionals and state.”
Chambers was also trained by Coach Davison, who did most of the weight training.
“I feel it was very considerate,” Chambers said. “Most people would have been selfish with their time. I have learned that time is very valuable, especially after coming to the air force academy. I can’t imagine doing what [they] did if I was put in [their] situation.”
Chambers was supervised by Radtke and Davison about an hour a day unless it was the day before a meet.
“[They] even coached me during holiday’s,” Chambers said. “I think this made winning state even more precious. Radtke and Davison agreed that, if a coach had the time and knowledge to help out an athlete, they would do the same thing. To them, that is what coaching is about.
“[Radtke] had more experience than any of the other [coaches], considering that I did not beat her throw until my junior year,” Chambers said. “She went to nationals in discus and could coach using her experience that others [didn’t have].”
In college, Radtke won conference, but missed going to nationals her senior year by 1/4 of an inch, although she did not win, she is quite proud of “throwing well enough to be so close.” Both Radtke and Davison thought it was easy to train chambers.
“He is just one of those guys that are just going to outwork everybody,” Davison said. “He is a team leader, and an outstanding individual, working one on one with him was easy.”
Radtke said that the one on one training was effective because they could do many more reps in a short amount of time as opposed to team training.
The coaches agreed that they enjoyed working with a person with “great work ethic,” and such a coach-able personality.